At Money20/20 Asia 2025, Cobo’s COO Lily Z. King took center stage at the "Digital Asset Workshop: From Bitcoin to Memecoin" panel to share her insights on the next wave of crypto innovation—and what it means for exchanges, institutions, and new market entrants.

Together with Pucktada Treeratpituk (Head of Fintech, Bank of Thailand) and Jane Pukasemvarangkoon (Strategic Account Director, Ripple), Lily discussed how the digital asset landscape is evolving far beyond Bitcoin, towards tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), stablecoins, and even memecoins as unexpected educational tools.

How Real-World Assets (RWAs) Are Driving the Next Phase of Growth

Lily highlighted that the strongest emerging opportunity lies in the tokenization of real-world assets. Institutions like BlackRock are already leading the way: BlackRock’s BUIDL fund reached $1.4 billion AUM in just 12 months, offering investors a 5% yield, 24/7 liquidity, and DeFi composability—all backed by traditional compliance frameworks.

“Chapter one was about tokenized treasuries; chapter two will be about everything else with intrinsic value—art, farmland, intellectual property, even future earnings,” Lily said.

As DeFi-native returns soften due to drained liquidity and compressed yields, RWAs are filling a critical gap by offering investors attractive, blockchain-enabled yields without compromising on real-world asset backing.

Why Self-Custody and Memecoins Matter More Than You Think

While memecoins are often dismissed as speculative noise, Lily offered a different perspective: memecoins are playing a critical role in onboarding first-time crypto users.

Nearly a third of crypto wallet downloads in 2024 were driven by memecoins, giving new entrants hands-on experience with DEXes, liquidity pools, and self-custody—the foundational pillars of Web3—within a familiar, pop-culture-driven context.

This trend, she argued, is vital for the future: "Crypto needs more than whitepapers and dashboards to grow. We need social, native, and accessible entry points for the next 100 million users."

A New Financial Rail in an Era of Geopolitical Uncertainty

As the panel explored the macroeconomic backdrop, Lily emphasized that stablecoins and Bitcoin are emerging as neutral financial rails amidst growing geopolitical tensions.

"When geopolitics weaponizes traditional financial infrastructure, liquidity flows to neutral rails—and today, that’s stablecoins and Bitcoin, operating 24/7 without asking what side of the border you’re on," she said.

This dynamic underscores the importance of decentralized, censorship-resistant financial infrastructure—not just for retail investors, but for institutional treasuries, cross-border payments, and global asset managers.

Shaping the Next Era of Digital Assets

The panel concluded by agreeing that digital assets are no longer an experiment.

Tokenized assets, blockchain-based payments, and real-world integration are happening now—and the players that understand this shift will define the future of finance.

At Cobo, we are proud to be at the forefront of this evolution, offering crypto-native, institution-grade custody solutions across real-world assets, DeFi, stablecoins, and emerging Web3 ecosystems.

Ready to build the future of finance with us?

👉 Learn more about Cobo’s digital asset custody solutions.